


Slow & Steady

by quartetship



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, commission, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 01:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10686873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quartetship/pseuds/quartetship
Summary: Shiro had never really been a morning person.





	Slow & Steady

**Author's Note:**

> A commissioned bit of Sheith fluff. Hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> \--

Shiro had never really been a morning person. 

Despite the fact that the military had trained his body and mind to snap into action before he had even so much as turned his alarm off, he had never enjoyed waking up. There was little to look forward to, at the Garrison; breakfast was bland and the conversations were more so, and he couldn't wait to receive his clearance to pilot missions and get away from it all. Of course, mornings didn't get any better, after Kerberos. 

During his captivity, Shiro dreamed of familiar faces. Just people he knew, sitting near him at the morning meal, smiling and talking. It was a little luxury he hadn't known he would miss so greatly. Nothing made him so grateful for such trivial things as did prison life. 

His first morning away from it felt like a rebirth. 

Sure, he'd crash landed on his home planet, missing one of his natural limbs, panicked and aching for rest, only to be prodded, talked over and knocked out by the people he was trying to help. Then he'd spent the rest of the night in the company of young strangers, only one of whom he knew, at the time. Still, waking up in the desert cabin was everything he had come to wish for, in his time away from earth. For the first time in ages, he watched the sun come up with earthly air in his lungs. 

During the next few months, life was turned on its head once again. Voltron changed everything, and Shiro knew that none of his teammates would ever be the same. One thing had changed in him, though, that he hoped his friends would never have to face as harshly as he did. 

Shiro had learned to appreciate every quiet moment, every reprieve. 

So when it was time to return to earth, he let his teammates have their fanfare, and then returned to the place where he could greet the morning in peaceful silence. He returned to the cabin, with Keith by his side. 

It hadn't taken long for Shiro to realize what he wanted once the war was over. If he survived, he wanted a hand to hold, a warm body pressed against his own by night, and a smiling, sleepy someone to welcome the day with, every single sunrise. Once he knew all of that, it left little room for doubt that the only place he could imagine himself happy and content was in that little wooden house, with no one to darken the horizon for acres around - no one, except for Keith. 

“You planning to get out of bed anytime soon?” Keith asked, still tucked loosely under a blanket, himself. He stretched like a cat, arms draping lazily around Shiro’s neck. Shiro looked down at him from where he was reclining against the wall-turned-headboard of the small bed they shared and shook his head. 

“Not really, no.” He threaded fingers behind his head, sitting up straighter. The motion pulled Keith flatter against him, Keith grumbling all the while. 

“Who's gonna make breakfast, then?” 

At that, Shiro laughed. “Sweetheart, you know what happens nearly every time I cook for us.” He glanced over at the section of wall near the small kitchen corner, still scorched from one of his failed attempts. “I think it'd be safer if we stay right here.”

“Starve to death to stay safe,” Keith huffed, nosing at Shiro’s neck. His jawline was undoubtedly rough, desperately needing to be shaved, but Keith seemed rather indifferent. If anything, he seemed fond of the scruff. “Sounds totally reasonable.” Keith nipped at the warm skin under his mouth, humming as he dropped slow and sleepy kisses from Shiro’s shoulder to his chin. “Always thought you liked mornings, though.” 

Shiro let his head fall back, just slightly, giving Keith more room. “Not really,” he admitted, and at that, Keith sat up properly. 

“No?” 

“No,” Shiro conceded. “Mornings are more of a habit, for me. Something I had to do, you know?” He shrugged, smiling despite what he knew was an undisguisable sadness in his voice. “Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you like it, right?” 

Keith nodded, his inquisitive expression softening again. “Tell me about it.” He looked to the window above the foot of the bed, only recently framed by thin, cotton drapes. “When it was just me out here, I hardly slept. As soon as the sun was up, I was up.” 

“The worst, isn't it?” Shiro groaned, and Keith quietly laughed, one of Shiro's favorite sounds in all the universe. They sat in peaceful silence for a few moments after that, until Shiro realized there was more that he really, truly needed to say. 

“Things are different, here with you,” he told Keith. He let one hand fall to rest on his stomach, and Keith took it, looking back at him. 

“Yeah? How so?” 

“I mean… Mornings. It's a whole different ballgame, here. When we were onboard the castle, things could happen at a moment's notice. I never felt like I could relax, especially long enough to sleep well.” Shiro laughed through his nose, thinking of some of the lighter moments from their time in space. “Guess I'm catching up on like three years of sleep, lately.”

Keith nodded. “S’fine with me,” he said. He seemed ready to let the conversation end there, and that was all the more reason that Shiro kept talking. 

“But here - out here, with you - it's not like that,” he said, squeezing Keith's hand in his own. “Waking up isn't a chore or something that I dread or try to distract myself from. It's… It's honestly one of my favorite parts of the day.” 

Under Shiro's gaze, Keith flustered slightly, shrugging one shoulder as he leaned hard into Shiro's side. “Yeah, well. I agree. It's not hard for something to be the highlight of your day when you're living out in the middle of nowhere, though.” 

“Would you rather we live elsewhere?” Shiro asked. Keith went still for a moment, drawing a long, slow breath before responding. 

“No. No, I just. I guess I worry sometimes that you might.” His voice was careful, his tone tentative, and Shiro wanted to make certain that any doubt that might be causing that waver in his words would be gone. He laid an arm over Keith's shoulders, drawing him in close to his side. 

“That's the point I'm trying to make, though,” he began. “There is no place on this planet, nowhere in this universe I'd rather be than right here, with you. If you weren't happy, we'd find somewhere else. But as for me, this is exactly what I wanted, every day we were out defending the universe.” 

Keith went still again, and Shiro looked down at him to be sure that he was alright. Wide, violet eyes looked back at him, shining almost as if with wonder. 

“You mean that?” Keith asked, quick and quiet. Shiro nodded decisively, leaving no room for doubt. 

“Absolutely. All I could think about when we would turn in for the night in the castle was how much I wished I was here, instead.” Shiro looked around. The house was barely that, little more than a well-kept shack with a few added amenities, but it was theirs. It was quiet, peaceful and private. It was home.

He smiled. “This is the one place I've felt at ease in the last several years of my life. Even before I knew that you'd want me around, I wanted to be here.” He felt good, having said it, but Keith looked conflicted as he sat up again. 

“How could you ever not know I'd want you around?” he asked, and there was no trace of humor in his voice. “You're all I've ever wanted.” 

Suddenly Keith seemed embarrassed, chewing on his lip like he'd misspoken, but he made no move to retract what he'd said. Unable to stop himself reaching for him, Shiro wriggled back beneath the blanket, pulling Keith over on top of himself. 

“I know that, now. I wish it hadn't taken me so long to realize it.” He reached up to cup Keith's face with one hand, the other smoothing down his side to rest on his hip as Keith sat back, straddling his hips. “But now we have forever,” he smiled. “Now we have every day, for as long as you keep wanting me around, to wake up like this. No rush, no hurry, nothing to do except lie here. Every single morning.” He stroked the pad of his thumb across Keith's lip, soothing the redness there. “That's the kind of morning I can get behind.” 

Keith splayed hands on Shiro's chest for support, leaning down until he could capture his lips in a sweet, unhurried kiss. In the first few weeks back on earth, the two of them had been drunk on their freedom, high on the privacy of their little, desert home, and spent most of their time in urgent kisses and frantic lovemaking out of the habit of fear. They weren't used to being able to linger in one another's presence. Months later, though, everything was indeed different. The war was becoming a more distant memory, and their pressing responsibility to the universe, with it. They could relax. They could wrap themselves up in one another and just stay that way, for as long as they liked. 

They could wake up to one another, every morning. 

Keith sighed against Shiro's lips. 

“So you just wanna stay in bed all day then, huh?” he teased. Shiro let both hands find Keith's narrow waist and smiled against his lover’s mouth. 

“If you're in bed, then that's where I wanna be. I guess if you get up then I'll eventually have to, too.” 

Keith laughed through his nose. “I suppose I could be persuaded to stay where I am. At least for a little while.” 

“Oh?” Shiro replied, raising an eyebrow. Keith sat upright again, his stomach and chest pale and perfect in the late morning light filtering through the window. Shiro dragged fingertips over every muscle there, watching the way they moved under his hands. “And how would I go about doing that?” 

“Two things,” Keith whispered, and Shiro couldn't help grinning. It was rare that Keith asked for anything, so whatever it was, he was sure he could make it happen. 

“Yeah?” 

“One, you do that thing you did last night again. You remember?” 

Shiro wasn't sure if Keith was toying with him, or if he believed Shiro's memory was truly that faulty, but he played the game, either way. 

“I remember. With those pretty sounds you were making, how could I forget?” He squeezed Keith's sides, just hard enough to make Keith shudder, though it may have been his words that did it. “Sure is a good thing we don't have neighbors.” 

“Agreed,” Keith shivered. A second later, his self-assurance returned. “And one more thing.” 

Shiro nodded, listening. 

“You come with me to town, later,” he grinned, “and we buy some groceries. Breakfast stuff, that we don't have to cook.” He let himself lay forward then, until he was flat against Shiro again, lying chest to chest. “So we can spend more mornings exactly like this.” He lifted his head just enough to let Shiro kiss him again, humming happily when Shiro's arms wrapped around him. They lay that way for a while, holding one another, just enjoying the sound of each other's breathing and the slow and steady beating of one another's hearts. Finally, Shiro rolled them onto their sides, so that he could look Keith in the eye properly. 

“Sounds like a day worth waking up for,” he smiled, and Keith nodded his agreement before letting his eyes shutter closed, content to savor the moment. It was a morning like so many before it, and like Shiro hoped so many more would be. It was everything he'd wished for in the years before. 

There, in that homey, little cabin, was everything he wanted, under the rising, earthly sun. 


End file.
